People on the Move the INSTRUCTION

People on the Move N° 97, April 2005 THE INSTRUCTION ERGA MIGRANTES CARITAS CHRISTI: A RESPONSE OF THE CHURCH TO THE MIGRATION PHENOMENON TODAY* Cardinal Stephen Fumio HAMAO President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People Introduction Migration is one of the vastest phenomena of our times. The most recent available data count 175 million persons living in a country that is different from their land of birth. They are divided among the continents more or less as follows, in order of magnitude: Europe (56.1 million); Asia (49.8 million); Northern America (40.8 million); Africa (16.3 million); Latin America and the Caribbean: (5.9 million); Oceania (5.8 million). The first five countries with the largest number of international migrants in their population are the United States (almost 35 million), the Russian Federation (13.3 million), Germany (7.3 million), Ukraine (6.9 million) and France (6.3 million). In the United States, for example, the largest migrant group is made up of Mexicans (9.1 million), followed by Filipinos (1.4 million) and Indians (a little over a million). Chinese and Vietnamese follow with a little less than a million each. Germany, instead, is a popular destination country for Turks (1.9 million), Italians (0.6 million), migrants from Serbia and Montenegro (almost 0.6 million), Greeks (almost 0.4 million) and Poles (0.3 million). The largest groups of foreign population in France, on the other hand, are Portuguese (almost 0.6 million), Moroccans (0.5 million), Algerians (almost 0.5 million), Turks and Italians (0.2 million each). Official figures for Russia identify three main migration sources: Kazakhstan (124,900), Ukraine (74,700) and Uzbekistan (40,800), although some 750,000 Chinese and a significant number of Afghans are estimated to be residing irregularly in the country. For Ukraine, the main migration partner is Russia (35,000 immigrants). Uzbekistan (almost 2,800) and Kazakhstan (2,200) follow. It must be noted, however, that a large number of immigrants in Ukraine, aside from Russians, are ethnic Ukrainians who were residing outside the country. 1. Why do people migrate? Migration experts point out that people move not so much because of the great differences between countries, but rather, when their situation and that of their families are such that they can no longer live according to local norms of safety, dignity and well-being.[1] There are, of course, different degrees of tolerability of the situation in one’s home country. 1 2. What do migrants experience? It is not difficult to see the difficulties that can arise in migration. When people in need are in a strange country, where they do not understand the language and much less know its culture and legislation, they are in a very vulnerable position. Even in the country of arrival, where they had high hopes of a better life, they can easily fall victim again to the abuse of his human rights. Moreover, when survival is at stake, it is easy to give up one’s labor rights, especially if no one helps to defend them. Migrants and refugees are in fact easy prey to exploitation, and, in extreme cases, also to human trafficking. They are therefore often victims of violence, maybe not always physical, but very often psychological and moral, as in cases of marginalization and exclusion, discrimination, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance. They are often made “scapegoats” for local unemployment or criminal activities. 3. Women and families in migration Another important characteristic of contemporary migration is the high proportion of women involved in it, a large part of whom are hired for domestic services. These are very vulnerable jobs, given the impossibility to draw a line between working and non-working hours while in the employer’s house. In many countries, domestic services are not subject to labor laws as are other kinds of jobs. The numbers working in the entertainment industry are not negligible either. It is not rare to find migrant women who signed contracts in this sector ending up in forced prostitution. In many parts of the world, women’s rights still need to be defended. Thus a migrant woman’s rights have to be safeguarded twice. Although present migration trends indicate that family-related migration is more numerous than labor migration, family separation in migration remains a difficult question to tackle. When this occurs, problems arise for the stability of the couple and of the family, as well as for the education of the children. When the absent spouse is the wife or mother, it is even more difficult, especially because of her central role in caring for the home and bringing up the children. 4. A mixture of traditions, cultures and religions Migration inevitably brings together people of varied nationalities, religions, customs, history, language, traditions, values, cuisine and everything else that define their cultural identity. For example, in countries of ancient Christian traditions, there are migrants who profess belief in other religions. But it is also true the other way around, as the Holy Father stated in his Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 2002. I quote: “In the European continent, marked by a long Christian tradition, citizens arrive who profess other beliefs. North America, a land that is already living a solid multicultural experience, hosts followers of the new religious movements. In India, where Hinduism prevails, there are Catholic religious men and women who render humble and useful service to the poorest in the country.” In this context, ecumenical, inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue are no longer optional but necessary to formulate a new way of peaceful living together – among migrant groups and with the host population – and also to achieve other complimentary and even more profound aims, from the religious and human points of view. 2 5. The Church’s response The Church wants to be there where the migrants are, to share with them the joys and the hopes, as well as the grief and the pains of migration[2]. Already during the 20th century, the Holy See has systematically focused its attention on the phenomenon in the general context of human mobility. Its declarations showed both a profound understanding of this changeable social reality and an indisputable capacity of suggesting pastoral solutions geared towards a full integration of immigrants into the host society and into the local Church. 6. Exsul Familia and the Second Vatican Council After the Second World War, there was clearly a need for an authoritative statement by the Holy See so as to reactivate and reorganize the vast and complex pastoral commitment in this field. This was met in August 1952, when Pope Pius XII published the Apostolic Constitution Exsul Familia, considered the magna charta of the Church’s teaching on migration, which laid down guidelines and norms for a specific pastoral care for migrants. Obviously, like everything else, Exsul Familia was conditioned by the reality of its times. Thus in the 1960s, the Church tried to develop apt pastoral responses to the many events that continually changed the overall picture of international migration. These years were also marked by the Second Vatican Council, which renewed, in continuity with the past, the structures of the Church and its commitment in evangelization and human promotion. The Church perceived, in the salient phenomena of the period – including international migration – the "signs of the times" to be interpreted in the light of the Word of God and the Magisterium of the Church. 7. Pastoralis Migratorum Cura This was also the time when Bishops' Conferences were being encouraged by the Second Vatican Council (see CD 18) to provide pastoral care for people on the move with suitable methods and institutions. To guide their efforts Pope Paul VI issued the 1969 Motu Proprio Pastoralis Migratorum Cura, which introduced the corresponding Instruction, De Pastorali Migratorum Cura ("Nemo est") of the Congregation for Bishops. 8. A Dicastery for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and People on the Move Then in 1970, the Holy Father created the Pontifical Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migration and Tourism, which became Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People in 1989. It was entrusted with the important tasks of coordination, animation and pastoral encouragement, especially in relation with the individual Bishops' Conferences. 9. Erga migrantes caritas Christi In these recent decades, the phenomenon has turned into a structural component of society, with its social, cultural, political, religious, economic and pastoral exigencies. Thus, it was necessary to come up with a renewed response, directed to the universal Church, which came thirty-five years after the publication of Pastoralis migratorum cura. 3 The Instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi, approved by the Holy Father on the first of May, this year, in fact, is an update of the pastoral care of migration, meant to be an ecclesial response to the pastoral needs of migrants at the beginning of the new millennium. It intends to lead towards making migration an occasion of dialogue and mission in the context of the new evangelization. So that the Church may “breathe with its two lungs”, the document facilitates the application of the norms contained in the Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church and also in the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches to respond more adequately to the pastoral needs of the emigrant faithful of the Eastern Churches too, who are now ever more numerous. Erga migrantes caritas Christi – someone commented – is unique in giving attention to both ecclesial traditions. 10. Migrants’ contribution to economy Erga migrantes caritas Christi calls to mind that although migration still entails much suffering for migrants, “in more recent times and in certain circumstances, it has often been encouraged and promoted to foster the economic development of both the migrants’ host country and their country of origin (especially through their financial remittances)” (no.

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